When you live somewhere you can get so used to how it is organized that you never make any changes because it feels so familiar. Well I imagine that’s how life goes for some people, but not me. I love to move things around and re-organize. “Where are the glasses kept now?” G will ask me, emphasizing the word “now”. I make it sound like he is my reluctant partner in change when he really enjoys it too. For close to four years we had been looking at a lovely solid wood door on one side that led to a makeshift storage space. On the other side there was a pretty iron gate that had been boarded up and it looked ok, but we always wondered how it would look if we bust that thing open. We talked about it often but decided that the layout made sense the way it was. Until we decided that it didn’t. We wanted to have a front door again. So on Tuesday morning without any warning I hear quite a bit of banging going on in the house. At first I thought G had dropped something really quite big. It also sounded as if there were no serious repercussions so I didn’t run down to see what had happened. Mainly because after the big bang there was a loud “oops” and that told me it wasn’t life threatening. Neither G nor Bailey were pinned under something heavy. A short while later I came down stairs to see that the board had been removed from the iron gate and we had a front door again. It was such a lovely change. As is the way with any change in a house, one change leads to another because you start to notice other things that now look out of place. Or you notice something that could be improved. We had a couple of wooden screens that had jasmine growing up them as a sort of separation between the bamboo terrace that guests would use and our new front door. We moved the screens back against the wall and that opened up the whole terrace. I had always thought it was a shame that it was not used. The bamboo terrace is one of my mum’s favorite places in the house and she was already planning having a cup of tea there later. Oh yes, the eagle has landed! Mum arrived safely into Marseille on a direct flight from Edinburgh. This is the first time she has visited since January of 2020 and we are delighted to have her with us.
Recently, some Scottish friends introduced us to a German man who lives in Fontaine de Vaucluse which is the next village to us. We got on well with him and so we invited him over for an aperitif the other day. Since we had recently toured his lovely home and seen all the renovations he had done, we gave him the tour of our house too. Then we settled down to chat over a glass of wine. He is a motorbike enthusiast and had been planning a bike trip from France to Africa but only six weeks ago had to put his plans on hold because many of the borders in the countries through which he would pass were closed due to the pandemic. It was so interesting listening to his plans and we covered so many topics, even Scottish independence much to my mum’s delight or dismay, I’m not sure which. Time marched on and I invited our friend to stay for dinner and he was happy to accept. It was close to ten o’clock when he announced that he really must go. The time had flown by, the conversation was easy and fun and he and G made plans to go bike riding, on bicycles not motorbikes, thank goodness.
My first draft of turning the blog into a book is coming along nicely. As part of the chapter “Out and About in Provence” we have been visiting and in some cases re-visiting towns and villages nearby. This week we turned our attention towards Beaumes de Venise and Séguret. On the way we took a detour towards Suzette in the Haut Vaucluse region which is like the highlands of Vaucluse. The scenery is stunning there. That’s really saying something because there’s natural beauty everywhere in Vaucluse. However towards Suzette with the Dentelles de Montmirail in the distance, the terrain becomes much more dramatic. We parked the car below the village as instructed and that is really a good piece of advice because the village is tiny. Much smaller even than Tiny Town. The first thing I noticed, after the breathtaking view of course was a converted France Telecom phone booth that had been converted into a little free library. There was even an English section in this bibliocabine as it was known, so I happily took an interesting looking book called “The Jetsetters”.
We passed by an adorable vacation rental called La Grange des Lapins that looked as if the guests were just arriving. The front door was ajar and I stole a quick glance inside and saw a beautiful old fireplace. On the second floor there was a terrace that would look out over the most glorious panorama, full of terraced vines and over to majestic Mont Ventoux. G spotted the village church that dated from the 11th century and he wandered inside while I continued on down the road in search of a good view of the Dentelles. Not long after I was rewarded with a great view of acres of vines still laden with grapes and the jagged form of the Dentelles in the distance. I’ve never been to the wine growing regions of Argentina but for some reason I imagined that it must look something like this.
From there we took a road down to a little village called Le Barroux where we found more incredible views and an ancient still very much intact castle. A five minute walk from the car park took us up to the castle with views all over the surrounding countryside. We descended to the village where because of the rain in the distance, a long thin bank of fog formed on the horizon. Beautiful stone houses and interesting views seemed to beckon us to continue to explore. One house in particular caught my eye and we wandered over to find out more.
It looked like a beautiful old house that had perhaps become a hotel or a bed and breakfast. The planting on the front, a twisted old vine and then I saw stone forms of cats at play. Right there next to the stone cats was a real one who was readying himself to climb down the vine from the second floor to the ground. I took seven pictures of him as he descended.
He stretched his paws out and clung on to the vine. All was going well. Next he had to navigate a twist in the vine and he had to use all his strength to prevent him from falling. No doubt he had made this journey a thousand times before as momentum took him finally, in a controlled way to the ground. From then on we noticed cat sculptures and figures made of iron all over the village. I stopped to take a picture of a really old child’s pram that had been planted with flowers before we continued on our journey by car towards Beaumes de Venise.
We didn’t stop in Beaumes this time, instead we carried on through Aubignan and on to Vacquerays, through Sablet and on to Séeuret. Since Séguret is absolutely beautiful, but also very hilly we decided to try and find a place to stop for lunch before there. Domaine de Cabasse, a place we had eaten at before was close by so we drove in through the gates up towards the restaurant. The place looked a bit deserted apart from a couple of large trucks. It looked as if they were getting ready for a large outdoor event, but given the times we are in that was not possible. I got out of the car to see if the restaurant was even open and walked past the large trucks that were open for me to see what was going on inside. Inside, I was surprised to see was a mobile bottling plant. I asked a man in the truck if the restaurant was open and he replied that he had no clue, so I continued further. The reception area was empty apart from a woman who was cleaning and I got her attention and asked her if the restaurant was closed. She replied simply “yes” and with just that one word it sounded as if she was saying “of course it is you fool”. On my way back to the car I stopped momentarily to marvel at the mobile bottling plant before we headed off in search of another place for lunch.
As luck would have it we found a place called La Bastide Bleu. I put on my mask and walked through the blue gates and a waiter greeted me. I asked if there was still space for three for lunch because it was not almost 1.20pm. Fortunately the waiter said “of course” and I set off to get the others. A boxer dog at a nearby table popped his head up when he saw Bailey arrive and we were shown to a table right outside the front door of the beautiful old house from the 17th century. There were quite a few other people in the quite large garden terrace area that was well spaced out so that no-one was too close. In the distance we could see the village of Séguret and so from this vantage point we had the best view.
Lunch was lovely, beautifully presented and tasted great. Our server who had immediately brought water for Bailey, commented on how pretty she was. She asked me if she was a Labradoodle and we talked about how uncommon Doodles were in France. After deciding that we really should start the journey home we got up to leave and Bailey knocked over her water bowl. It was as if she was making a grand gesture to ensure we noticed her departure. Such a drama queen.
Thanks for reading!
Les Trois Musketeers
French Bruemmers 